Geek Girl Con '13

Check out my preview for ParentMap to "GeekGirlCon" coming to Seattle October 19-20.

A supportive and celebratory 2-day gathering for geeks of the female persuasion and their fans.  This will be my first Con ever as an attendee.  Looking forward to communing with my fellow nerd girls!

Baby Shower Accomplished

Saturday, we celebrated our good friend Sarah and her imminent arrival.  Briahna and I co-hosted, with Ronica assisting on day-of.  The theme was a tea party and naturally I looked on Pinterest & Etsy for some inspiration.  We catered tea sandwiches, tea and a DELICIOUS cake from the Queen Mary Tea Room.  Superb eats!

The husbands also had a hand in helping make this event a success.  Ken helped fluff the puff balls and hang them from high places, Wilson arranged the flowers and filled the tea bags while Travis assembled all the fruit kabobs and mixed the chocolate.  All of that sounds vaguely risque but it really wasn't, I swear.

I feel like I should explain what you are about to see.  So when we were planning this shower, Sarah said she wanted THIS cake that she saw on CakeWrecks.com.  First of all that site is full of cakes that you have to see to believe.  Second that particular cake that Sarah was so fond of featured Darth Vader and we were planning a girly tea party themed gathering.  But my mantra has always been: Sarah gets what Sarah wants.  And good thing we have the Internet.  So we took a perfectly good cake and made it bizarre.  What's not to love?

Besides celebrating Sarah and giving her good juju (and loot) for the rest of her pregnancy, this house transformed itself from a toddler wasteland into a fairly respectable home that looked like adults live here.  Good to know we can still pull that off.

Ronica with Stormtrooper ring.

Five Great Things about MLS Soccer & Suggestions for Improvement

In recent years, the Seattle Sounders have come to prominence and their crowds are the stuff of legend.  I had heard the stadium gets super loud and the fans participate in a way no other sporting crowds do throughout the match. There are also so many people we know who love going to these games that it was high time we checked it out.  We went to the game tonight at Centurylink Field.

  And wouldn't you know it--it also happened to be:

• The home debut of US National Team Captain Clint Dempsey as a Sounder
• The largest PNW MLS match record attendance of 67,000+
• A grudge match of Cascadia rivals: Seattle vs. Portland (my former hometown)
• A warm, dry Seattle evening  

...so not bad for our first MLS game.

Five Reasons to Like Soccer

1. Chants, Songs & Flags.
These people were going the entire match.  On their feet, singing, waving flags, chanting--unreal.

2. Unfurling of Very Large Banners.
What does "Build a Bonfire" mean?  You're the Sounders.  Shouldn't you be using a water metaphor?

3. No announcing.
So many times during the Olympics, I'd yell at the TV for those morons to SHUT UP already.  This is a refreshing change but after half the match, I started getting anxious like someone who stopped smoking cold turkey--I felt like I was missing something.  When you're used to a running commentary or at least explanations of plays at a sporting event, it's weird to show up and not have one.  Because I had questions like: Who has the ball?  What call did the referee just make? And most common: WHAT IS HAPPENING?  Because I see a guy on the ground and people pointing and players acting like they are thugs...Hello?  

4. Costumes
I love the enthusiasm and the creativity.  There were also lots of scarves.  The best one said, "Seattle Til I Die."

5. You can throw stuff...

or not.

But really, I have never been a soccer person.  To be honest, I just find it rather boring and anti-climactic--I know, I said it!  There was just so much blood, sweat, tears and effort for that ONE little, measly point.  And sometimes both teams can tie and thus they also both lose.  It's frustrating to see the players work so hard, set up some nice passes only to be thwarted over and over and over again.  I also can't say I'm a fan of using one's head so directly in a sport either.  That's the mom in me.  

I was actually surprised at how physical and thuggish the players were.  It seemed like they were trying to hurt each other and start fights.  It reminded me of another goal-tended sport that rhymes with "sockey".   (My brother vehemently disagrees.)  But with no helmet or extensive padding, those soccer guys definitely have to be tough for all they go through. So I tip my hat with much respect to you, soccer players of the world.  But I just wish you could get points for other accomplishments, like how many times you fall down and no one does a thing about it or how many times a goalie berates his players for not defending better or from how many miles up in space your shoes can be spotted.  All those things could be scored and count for something.  I'm just saying...

Cuz I'm Freeeee--Free Falling

Lest you think this blog has become a catalog of my husband's eccentric exploits because my own life is comparably lame, well you've never simultaneously planned a baby shower and a 4-year-old's birthday party.  Now that's EXTREME.

~~~~~~~~~

When I first met my husband Ken in 2003, he admitted he was somewhat of a thrill-seeker.  In fact at the time, he had been looking into switching jobs and moving down to California just so he could take regular hang-gliding lessons.  But then we started dating--and he did not move to California as we all well know. 

As married life and family life emerged, he shelved plans for high-risk pursuits.  But I knew this was part of his essence and it's also one of the things I admire most: his fearlessness.  But as a risk-assessing, contingency-planning, skeptic, I was very leery about tempting fate.  And yet, just leaving the house everyday is a risk too.  

So earlier this summer, Ken learned of a place down in Shelton, WA that teaches accelerated free-fall/skydiving.  They have you jump out at first with 2 instructors hanging on then as you jump again and again they don't hang on to you but stay very close, then there is only one instructor jumping, then it's just you.  Ken felt very strongly and wanted to do this program but I was initially very resistant given our life at this point in time.   However, I looked into this organization with some extensive internet searches and review reading.  I came to feel somewhat better about the prospect.  

On Saturday, Ken spent all day down in Shelton taking the 5-hour class to learn to jump and then doing his first jump at 7:30 pm.  He loved it but had hoped to do more than one for all that trouble.   So with the weather set to be clear and favorable today, Ken said planned to take today off, go back down there and get a few more jumps in.  Well, he actually did five.  He called me about 1:30 PM after doing his 4th jump and said he could come home right then but he also could do one more jump that would allow him to do some acrobatic stunts.  And I was all, "Really?  Well you better get video of that because you'll want something to show for it.  Consider that a (belated) birthday present from me."

So here it is....

Ken's 6th Accelerated Free-fall Jump from Kali Sakai on Vimeo.

There are also still photos from the jump.  My favorites:

Ken's instructor (Shane), Ken and a guy named Shrik

Long way down.

Back flip tuck

Nice view.

Yay for parachutes!

So he tells me this is it and he's gotten it out of his system...for now.  But all this talking about skydiving has intrigued Sidney who wants to go with her dad when she's 18.  Fantastic (sigh).